Of course, you already knew of the existence of so-called “loanwords” in English, meaning words which are originally French, German, Spanish, etc.
But were you actually aware that several of them also come from ARABIC?

IN SCIENCE AND MATH:

ALCHEMY and CHEMISTRY (الكيميـــــــــاء.)

ALCOHOL (الكُحُـــــــــول.)

ALGEBRA (الجبــر: More on the eponymous founder of Algebra as an independent mathematical discipline here.)

ALGORITHM (خوارزم: More on the eponymous founder of algorthimics here.)

ALKALINE (القلوي: Meaning “non-acid, basic.”)

ALMANAC (المنــــــاخ: Literally meaning “climate”)

AVERAGE (From Old French avarie, itself from the Arabic term عوارية, meaning “damaged goods”, from عور meaning “to lose an eye.”)

AZIMUTH (السمــــــــت: This concept is used in several fields, such as الفلك/astronomy، هندسة الطيران/aerospace engineering، and فيزياء الكم/quantum physics.)

An entirely separate post is necessary to list all of the astronomical terms which are of Arabic origin.

TECHNICAL TERMS (ENGINEERING, MILITARY, BUSINESS, COMMODITIES, etc.)

ADMIRAL (أميــــــــر الرحلة, meaning commander of the fleet, or literally “of the trip”)

ADOBE (الطوب: meaning a “brick.” Next time you use an Adobe Acrobat product, you will remember that Adobe is originally Arabic!)

ALCOVE (القبة: meaning “the vault”, or “the dome”)

AMBER (عنبر: Anbar, “ambergris.”)

ARSENAL (Do fans of F.C. Arsenal today, including those living in the Arab world, know where the name of their favorite team came from? دار الصناعــــــــــــــــة : “manufacturing house”)

ASSASSIN (Just like the word MAFIA, it is of Arabic origin: It either comes from “حشَّــــــــــــــاشين”, referring to the medieval sect of the same name famous for the heavy hashish consumption by its knife-wielding members, or “العسَّاسيــــــــــــــــن”, meaning “the watchmen.”)

SWAHILI (Comes from سواحــــــــــل: Plural of ساحــــــــــل, meaning a “coast.”)

ZIRCON (زرقـــــــــــــون: “golden-colored.” Zirconium is a chemical element with the symbol Zr and atomic number 40)

TARIFF (تعاريـــــــــــــــف, plural of تعريـــــــــــــــفة, meaning a “fee”, or simply تعريـــــــــــــــف, as in “بطاقــــــــة التعريـــــــــــــــف“, meaning an “identity card.”)

Finally, to close this list, it is fitting to greet everyone by saying “SO-LONG” (an English expression which, according to The Penguin Dictionary of Historical Slang, may come from the Arabic word ســـــــــــــــــــــــلام/SALAAM!)

About Hichem

13 Responses to “Top 50+ English Words—of Arabic Origin!”

I was studying at EF school and we studied about some english words that originated from other languages . They mentioned most of these words and they’re obvious from Arabs. But they mentioned that the word guitar is Indian, the word safari is African. Common people! are they stupid. Or they tryin to erases the Arabic language. They teach those worlds at all English schools in USA but they tell them those words are originated from India, Africa and other languages, but they’ve never mentioned arabia. They’ve never mentioned those words are originally Arabic words. I will never stop. I will never let these kind of people erase our language and relate it to other languages. Distribute all these words and their originate to let people know those words are originally Arabic .

you are a nice girl shokedGirl, when i tell that words to American English speakers they say oh its Latin, and i ask them, which is oldest, Arabic or Latin?
and that does help to prove that Arabic is the mother language .

Arab conquests had a lot of influence in Europe as they resided 800 years in Spain and about 200 in Sicily (Siqilia in Arabic) that is why southern Italy people are darker than the north.
The conquest was for a long period of time, centuries. From Spain spreads to North Africa (The Moors as they are called today) all the way to India.
Precious Science, Mathematics and Language was used from the Arabs.
Too bad most people stick to wrong beliefs without research, If they only read more on history they will find out. The media has a strong effect.
Thank you all.

Nice list, although you forgot the word Haboob.
Arab conquests had a lot of influence in Europe as they resided 800 years in Spain and about 200 in Sicily (Siqilia in Arabic) that is why southern Italy people are darker than the north.
The conquest was for a long period of time, centuries. From Spain spreads to North Africa (The Moors as they are called today) all the way to India.
Precious Science, Mathematics and Language was used from the Arabs.
Too bad most people stick to wrong beliefs without research, If they only read more on history they will find out. The media has a strong effect.
Thank you all

Most of what’s reported by Hichem in the post above is correct. But a large minority of it is FALSE. In particlar, the words Caliber, Cork, and Guitar are NOT from Arabic. The words Almanac, Soda, Hazard, Mascara, Racquet, Satin, and Zircon may or may not be from Arabic — each word is of obscure origin and the Arabic-origin idea comes without sufficient good evidence in each case. Hichem has taken the information directly or indirectly from a dictionary that doesn’t provide any evidence. If you delve into the actual supporting evidence, you’ll find the evidence is not there at all, or else not there sufficiently and convincingly, for a large minority of the words. See http://EnglishWordsOfArabicAncestry.wordpress.com

@ Shocked girl, They are not stupid, they know what they are doing. It is just to erase anything that suggest that any achievement, discovery or concept comes from Arabic language and Arab people and to establish an image that Arabs are only Barbaric people that they did nothing, but don’t worry,real educated people know the Arab civilizations and their cultural and scientific contribution to the whole world. then pls know that Arabic doesn’t necessairly related to (Arabia), It is a language that dates back to more than 8000 years BC, and it was the language of people that lived in the whole area of the middle east including Syria and Iraq and the whole area, not to mention that the first alphabet was their achievment, but because Arabs know nothing about their history, they let such people manipulate and deform history, Salam :).

@ Seanwal11111, Oh my God, Guitar is not form Arabic origins, how could Spain ever known the guitar if it wasn’t for the Ommayads Arabs, it is from the word (guitarra) which obviously sounds like Alquithara (القيثارة) which was introduced to them by Arabs, this fact is recognised by them, pls search using trustworthy resourses that is objective and render real history, then for (Almanac), Is there any person in the whole world doesn’t know that words begining with (AL) are Arabic, western children know that, please it is Almanakh, you can look up its definition,and for the other words, please be objective! Regards

I’M SORRY , I don’t blame the American tutors for telling their students that those words are from American origins, because also arabic teachers do the same or more than that, it’s not just about words,but also about the History itself; they coast shadow on other civilizations like Amazigh that known as the indeginous poeple of north Africa.So comparing between “stilling Words origin and “stilling” History; there is a big different.

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